The Magazine
by a.lakewood
Summary: Wee!chesters. One of Dean’s friends at school shows him something that piques his curiosity. That interest leads to an awkward moment with Sam.


Title: The Magazine  
Author: alakewood  
Warnings: A very slight spoiler for _Lazarus Rising_.  
Rating: PG-13  
Word Count: ~1600  
Summary: Wee!chesters. One of Dean's friends at school shows him something that piques his curiosity. That interest leads to an awkward moment with Sam.  
Disclaimer: As always, I own nothing.

**oxoxo**

"Dean Winchester! Do we run in hallways?" Mrs. Stevens called from the doorway of her classroom at the other end of the hall.

_When you're not looking,_ Dean felt like saying. Instead he answered, "No, ma'am. I won't do it again."

"That's right. I want you to come back here and _walk_ back down the hall like a good boy."

"You can't be serious," he muttered as he trudged towards her. But he knew that if he didn't listen to her, he'd probably end up with detention. And he wasn't getting detention for Billy Morris – his dad would kill him if he found out.

It took almost three whole minutes to walk down to Mrs. Stevens and back to the front door. Once he hit the steps, though, he started running. Sure enough, Billy and a few of their friends were waiting in the alley half a block away from the school, just like Billy had said at lunch.

"Jeez. There you are, Winchester. Thought you were gonna wuss out," Billy taunted.

"Why would I wuss out when I don't even know why you told us to come here?" Dean asked coolly.

Billy shoved his hand into his backpack and pulled out a handful of wrinkled magazine pages then stuck them up into Dean's face. "This is why."

Dean took the mess of paper and started unfolding it as the other boys crowded around. "_Dude._ Where'd you get these? Where's the rest of the magazine?"

"My mom's throwing away all of my dad's stuff and I found these with all his crap. I didn't want to take the whole thing 'cause she'd probably notice. So I just ripped out all the good ones."

Dean couldn't stop staring.

"What? Haven't you seen tits before?"

He felt the heat rising in his cheeks. "Yeah," he said defensively.

"And your mom's don't count," Billy said with a laugh, the other three boys joining in.

The color suddenly drained from Dean's face – and everybody went silent, except for Billy. "My mom's dead." He threw the glossy pages at Billy's feet and walked away. It took everything he had not to run.

**oxo**

Dean spent the whole walk to the elementary school fuming because of stupid Billy Morris. Billy didn't know _anything_. Billy was lucky he didn't punch him in the face for talking about his mother like that.

"Dean! Dean, hey!" Sam launched himself up off the bench as Dean walked past and had to run to catch up with his older brother. "You're late."

"Since when can you tell time?" Dean teased, but it sounded a lot meaner than he'd meant it to. He didn't apologize, though – he was kind of mad at Sam, too. _If it wasn't for you,_ Dean thought, glancing at his scrawny eight-year-old brother, _Mom might still be alive._ He knew he shouldn't think like that, but sometimes – like right then – it felt true.

Sam just ignored him like he always did when Dean tried to torment him. "Is Dad back from his trip yet?"

"Not 'til Thursday."

"Oh." Sam was never quiet for long. "Then what are you making for dinner? I don't want cereal again." He paused. "Or Spaghetti O's."

"Then why don't _you_ make dinner?"

"Why don't you just get a pizza?"

"Dad didn't leave us enough money to order pizza."

"A frozen one, doofus." That earned him a shove and he stumbled off the sidewalk into the bushes that lined Mr. Lafferty's yard. "You know how to use the oven, don't you?" he called from well behind Dean.

Dean stopped, thinking.

"Um, Dean?" Sam's voice sounded small. "You know I was kidding, right? I know you can use the oven."

But Dean was thinking about the wrinkled, glossy pages he'd held in his hands not that long ago. "Fine. If you want pizza, you gotta do something for me."

Sam looked at Dean warily. "What?"

"We'll get a pizza at the gas station down the street. You can get us pop's and get yourself some candy for later. But I need you to..." Dean paused. It was the least Sam could do, he decided. "I need you to create a diversion. You know what a diversion is, right?"

"Dean. I'm not stupid. But why do you need a diversion?"

"It's none of your business. Do you want pizza?"

Sam sighed. "Fine. But if we get in trouble, I'm telling Dad it was your idea."

"If Eddy is working, just hang around by the candy for a really long time – you know he doesn't trust us and thinks kids are always taking stuff."

"It better be pepperoni."

"_And sausage._"

Sam wrinkled his nose.

"Fine. Pepperoni."

Sam grinned and started walking again.

**oxo**

Eddy was working and Dean's plan worked like it was supposed to: Eddy got paranoid with Sam standing in the candy aisle for longer than thirty seconds so he went to check on him and it gave Dean time to sneak behind the counter and grab one of black-plastic-wrapped magazines. He stuffed the magazine into his bag and headed down the aisle. "Jeez, Sam," he said. "Just pick something already. The pizza's gonna be all soft before we get home."

Sam glanced at his brother, who nodded, and grabbed a bag of peanut M&M's. "Sorry. Couldn't decide."

Eddy rolled his eyes, mumbling something that sounded like, "Damn kids," as he passed Dean.

Dean set the pizza and pop on the counter, Sam holding up his bag of M&M's. "Do you want to check our pockets, Eddy?"

"Naw, kid. Just some of you guys've got sticky fingers, you know? Makes me paranoid."

"Does that mean I should put the beer back?" Dean joked.

Sam's eyes went wide. "You stole beer?!"

"I think your brother's kidding, Sam." He glanced at Dean. "Right?"

"Duh. If I really wanted one, Dad's got a few cans in the fridge. I wouldn't have to steal."

"Yeah. But then Dad would _know_," Sam argued.

"I didn't steal anything, Sam." He handed a ten to Eddy. "Little brothers. Believe everything they hear."

Eddy just nodded as he handed Dean the change. "Behave. And leave your dad's beer alone."

**oxo**

Sam was quiet the rest of the way back to the apartment and it was making Dean a little nervous. "What?" he asked, once they were inside.

"So...what did you take from the gas station? Did you really steal beer? I can't believe you did that."

"I didn't steal beer, Sammy."

"Then what?"

"I told you earlier: it's none of your business."

Sam's sigh was overdramatic. "I guess I'll just go do my homework."

"Okay." Dean waited until he heard their bedroom door close before picked up his bag and headed for the bathroom. He quietly shut the door then sat down in front of it so that Sam couldn't barge in. He pulled the magazine out of his backpack and anxiously ripped off the plastic.

It was better than Billy's few pages – there were half-naked and _completely_ naked girls all over the magazine. And quite a few of the pictures showed more than their boobs. Showed _down there_. Dean felt his body reacting a little strangely to that. But in a good way.

"Dean! Are you in there? I need to pee."

"What? Just a sec." He shoved the magazine into his bag and tossed it into the shower, making sure the curtain was closed. He flushed the toilet then waited a moment before opening the door.

"Took you long enough." Sam shoved past him, shutting the door in his face.

Dean paced the hallway nervously. Sam didn't have reason to-

"Dean!" The bathroom door flew open. "You stole a magazine with naked girls in it?!" Sam questioned incredulously, voice high, brandishing the magazine in one hand.

Dean's eyes went as wide as Sam's. "Sam! You said you had to pee! What were you doing snooping in the shower?"

"You stole a _Playboy_!"

"At least it wasn't _beer_," Dean said, grabbing the Playboy from Sam's hand.

"I'm gonna tell Dad."

"You're _not_."

"Am too."

"If you do...You'll be sorry, Sam."

"Not as sorry as you when Dad finds out you _stole_ a – a _naked girl_ magazine."

Dean knew Sam was right, and he hated to admit it. "What do you want? Journey? Foreigner?"

Sam was quiet for a long moment, debating. "I want..." He blushed, clearly embarrassed.

"What, Sam? And you're not getting Metallica."

"Dude, I don't even _like_ Metallica."

"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that. What do you want, then, Sam?"

"I want...to...look at it, too."

"What?! Sam, you're too young."

"So are you."

"Fine. Five minutes. And we're never – I mean _never_ - talking about this _ever_ again."

**oxoxo**

_September 2008_

Sam was in the backseat of Dean's stolen car, helping to get rid of the last of the things Dean had stashed in it in the short time the car had been in his possession. He reached under the driver's seat – nothing. Reached under the passenger's seat – "Huh." Sam's fingers slipped off the slick surface. With a little effort, Sam produced the magazine. "Dean!" he called, poking his head out of the door and grinning.

"Huh?" Dean asked around a mouthful of burrito.

Sam just held up the magazine – Busty Asian Beauties. He raised his eyebrows. "Know what this reminds me of?"

Dean just snatched the magazine out of Sam's hand and clutched it to his chest. "Yeah, and I'm still scarred. When I said that we were never going to talk about it, I meant-"

"_Never ever_," Sam interjected, mocking him.

"Ever," Dean added.

"I never got to thank you for that very informative sex talk!"

"_Sam!_"

"Thanks, Dean!"


End file.
